22 January 2015

From 2006 to 2012, PyroManiacs turned out almost-daily updates from the Post-Evangelical wasteland -- usually to the fear and loathing of more-polite and more-irenic bloggers and readers. The results lurk in the archives of this blog in spite of the hope of many that Google will "accidentally" swallow these words and pictures whole.This feature enters the murky depths of the archives to fish out the classic hits from the golden age of internet drubbings.The following excerpt was written by Dan back in May 2012.

As usual, the comments are closed.

I think the truth of the sufficiency of Scripture may be the central
Biblical doctrine under attack in our day. Of course cults, heresies
and false religions attack it, as they must. What is saddest to see is
all the "friendly" fire that well-meaning obsessives have leveled with a
boldness that seems to be on the increase.

I've come at this topic "at sundry times and in divers manners," including here, here, and here, among many others.

Sunday was part three of our Thinking Biblically series at CBC, and the sufficiency of Scripture was one of the foci of the sermon titled What Should We Do with the Bible? (That and, well, once again too many other things.) I'll lift out a part of the sermon, part that actually wasn't in the notes.

I grant that my efforts may not have convinced everyone, though I will
keep trying. But virtually all remotely-sound Christians will at least
give a nod to the proviso that yes, yes, yes, the Bible is God's Word,
and yes, it's some kind of sufficient, and no, no hemi-demi-semi-kindasorta revelation can displace it — well, not formally, anyway.

So agree with me on this. If you really believe what you say you really believe, this should be no problem. Here we go:

Agree heartily to believe in and use Scripture as befits what it claims about itself.
Treat it like it is what you say you believe it is: God's actual,
real-live, inerrant, personal, living and powerful Word. Approach it as
you would actually approach such a treasure as you profess to affirm to
have found in Scripture.

That is, pledge yourselfexclusively to seek God and His will according to Scripture. Pray only for light to understand Scripture (cf. Psa. 119:18; 2 Tim. 4:7). Commit yourself only to
regard what comes from Scripture as God's binding will for you. Set
aside all the yeah-buts and evasions and distractions and
special-pleadings and fourteenth-hand stories and traditions, for a
time.

Set yourself to seeking and being in a church that emphatically teaches the
Bible as if it were what it says it is, that devotes itself to the
exposition and proclamation and practice of Scripture as God's inerrant
word, without the endless distractions of entertainment and fads and
dancing bears.

Devote yourselfexclusively to studying Scripture, all sixty-six
books. Set yourself to master every book, every chapter, every verse,
every word. Seek perfect understanding of all of Scripture, and
Scripture only, as containing what God really wants you to know.
Memorize all of it.

Finally (and at the same time) commit yourself to practicing Scripture
perfectly. All of it. Master it, and be mastered by it — exclusively. If
it is not Bible or a valid straight-line application of the Bible, do
not claim it as any level of special revelation from God.

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